the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Citizen dialog for transparent process

Friday, 16 November 2012

Video playlist @ LCC 2012-11-13

The County Commission continues to do the peoples' business in secret.
The solid waste exclusive franchise agreement was tabled for a month,
due to some mysterious new information,
and two citizens pleaded with the Commission to reconsider the whole thing.
The developer who got to speak at Monday's Work Session
asked for his development to be tabled for a month, and the Commission did so.
After the meeting, three people from Moody AFB trooped into a side
room with the Chairman.

Also, if it's a privilege to serve and an honor to be appointed,
why does the Lowndes County Commission not tell us who they are appointing?
In the
Work Session
they muttered some proposed names unintelligbly,
and in the Regular Session they didn't say anything about who some of the
new appointees are, and none of the appointees spoke.
As near as I could tell, only one bothered to show up: VLCIA
reappointee Mary Gooding.

Update 2012-11-20: Jody Hall reminds me he was there as an appointee. He says he was ready to speak, but nobody asked him to.

David Kirk is moving; need a replacement. No recommendations received.
Architectural or construction background preferred by ZBOA.
They tabled it until the next meeting, so as to get responses
back from people they had asked about being willing to serve.

They reappointed Mary Gooding to the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
even though they didn't get that authority's name right.
The Chairman congratulated her, so apparently she was present.
Gooding is
Director of Marketing & Community Relations
at Valdosta State University.

Four terms expire November or December: Buzz Akins, Jerome Tucker, Jeff Reames, and Gary Cannon.
They reappointed Jeff Reames, Gary Cannon, and Jerome Tucker,
and appointed Brooks Akins in place of Buzz Akins.
Brooks Akins is presumably John Brooks Akins of
Akins, LLC, 908 South Patterson Street, Valdosta.
Why we the taxpayers should have to ferret out information on who
our elected officials are appointing to a board is mysterious.
The new LCDA board appears to be:
Jerome Tucker, Jerome Waters, Carolyn Eager, Crawford Powell, Jeff Reames, Gary Cannon, Brooks Akins.
See
Work Session for more.

Approved with a condition eliminating a package store use.
They didn't address the biggest problem, which is
that at some future date, especially if Dr. Acree sells that site,
somebody could put a strip mall there.

This is the one for which
the Chairman asked the developer to speak in the Work Session,
while no opponents of the development were asked to speak.
At this meeting, County Planner Jason Davenport announced that the
developer had asked for the Commission to table the item until
their meeting in December, which they did, unanimously.
After the Regular Session, three people from Moody AFB trooped
into a side room with the Chairman.

Some unspecified new information became available since the previous
morning's
Work Session
and the Chairman said he understood that meant Commissioners needed more
time to consider.
A rare event: Commissioner Joyce Evans made a motion.
The motion was to table until the next meeting; unanimously approved.
Rumor has it that the concern is whether the exclusive franchise agreement
is even legal.
I would wonder about an elected body granting a monopoly.
I also wonder why the solid waste decision process continues
to be done in secret, with no public hearings.